Need an Idiot's Guide to Small RO Maintenance & Cleaning

[helptheold]

Hello! Last year my husband made me a small scale RO which was amazing but I didn't clean it at all and when we got back from a week long vacation it was gross and my season was over. Huge bummer.

Now that I'm ready to start collecting for the year, I'm wondering if anyone knows of an idiot's guide to taking care of an RO machine properly. There is a ton of great information on this site but wading through it all is giving me fit because I'm not totally sure what is the right way and what supplies I should be using to clean and when to clean.

Plus there are a lot of terms are getting thrown around and I don't know what they mean. Like what is RO soap, where do I get it and when do I use it?

Just so confused!

[eustis22]

A) I don't believe your season is over if your RO craps out, unless you have an extremely limited wood supply. You can just boil unprocessed sap, can't you?

2) This gentleman, https://sites.google.com/view/mattatuckmadnessmaplesyrup/home, has provided me with tons of information on the care and feeding of small scale ROs. Perhaps you will find something of use at that site. Good luck.

[jdircksen]

Been there, done that. Good thing TheRoBucket.com has instructions for this scenario:
https://www.therobucket.com/Wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Instructions-for-flushing-an-improperly-maintained-RO-Bucket.pdf

[DRoseum]

I have 3 videos on RO use, flushing, and end of season cleaning and storage:

https://youtu.be/s106bSrcfno
https://youtu.be/MP1NNt3b2Oo
https://youtu.be/m_RBNFkq80U

[hodorskib]

https://sites.google.com/view/mattatuckmadnessmaplesyrup/cleaning-and-storing-ro-membranes
This is what I have developed over the past several years and my system performs well all season.

[helptheold]

Thanks so much everyone!


A) I don't believe your season is over if your RO craps out, unless you have an extremely limited wood supply. You can just boil unprocessed sap, can't you?

LOL technically not but after a week's vacation and then having the RO crap out, I lost my momentum and was done. Still got way more syrup then I ever had before so I was ok with that!

[maple flats]

By the way, helptheold, you are not an idiot, just not yet fully trained. Mistakes do not make one an idiot! You will however, if you learn how to clean your RO, make sure it gets properly cleaned every following year, that was a good lesson.

[Lanark]

I have 3 videos on RO use, flushing, and end of season cleaning and storage:

https://youtu.be/s106bSrcfno
https://youtu.be/MP1NNt3b2Oo
https://youtu.be/m_RBNFkq80U

I've watched your video on end of season clean and you mentioned that when the system runs dry it can be stored. My question is, do the filters not have to be submurged so that they don't dry out during the off season?

[DRoseum]

The membranes are actually still wet with the preservative solution. Just shut the needle valve down tight and cap the inlet to the system as well. Store it in a cool place (like a basement) and it will be fine. I did this exact procedure and then flushed with 10 gallons of distilled water to start the season and checked the membrane permeate with a TDS meter and got 0.